Norman T. Whitaker
His father, Dr. Herbert Whitaker,[1] was a respected mathematics teacher with a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, while his mother was well known as a champion whist player.
This club was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, a Philadelphia chess enthusiast and one of the most prominent Americans of the 18th century.
[12] In 1920, Whitaker represented Washington, D.C. against Chicago in what is believed to have been the first American shortwave radio long-distance chess match.
[16] Whitaker was a regular challenger for top places in the Western Open, held annually in the midwest, south, or far west.
[11] In 1927, following release from prison, he won a nine-player invitational round-robin event, which was the first National Chess Federation Congress, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, ahead of the teenaged Samuel Reshevsky, who was already Master strength, and who later became one of the world's top players.
Based on this result, with 6.5/8 -- Whitaker was declared champion of the NCF, a predecessor of the United States Chess Federation (USCF).
[17] However, despite winning this title, Whitaker was not even invited to participate in the championship the following year, held at Bradley Beach, New Jersey;[4] this situation indicates conflict with chess administrators, likely over his criminal past.
In 1928, while on his honeymoon, Whitaker went to The Hague to represent the United States in the Amateur World Championship, a round-robin tournament, against the champions of 15 other nations.
Despite being in a terrible train wreck which killed nine people and severely injured his wife, he finished with a solid score of 9.5/14 in his first strong international event outside the U.S.; this tied for 4th-6th places, and won a prize.
In 1929 at St. Louis (30th Western), Whitaker defeated the eventual champion, Chicago Master Herman Hahlbohm, but trailed him by half a point with 7.5/10, tied 2nd-4th.
[11] In 1930, Whitaker represented Washington, D.C. against London in a transatlantic radio match, losing a spectacular tactical game to former British champion Sir George Thomas, 7th Baronet.
[19] Based on prior competitive results, and on the weak showings by Phillips and Anderson on an otherwise well-performing American team (6th place) at Hamburg, Whitaker may have had a reasonable case.
Whitaker conspired with several of his own family members in an elaborate auto theft / insurance fraud scheme in the early 1920s.
Whitaker, out on bail after a Florida arrest for a scheme similar to his earlier auto fraud conviction, fled that jurisdiction and headed north, to conspire with former United States Department of Justice Agent Gaston Means, who had been a bagman for bribes during the corrupt Harding administration.
[23] The two concocted a scheme to swindle a wealthy but gullible heiress, Evalyn Walsh McLean, co-publisher of The Washington Post, by claiming to be in contact with the kidnappers, and convinced her that they could arrange for the baby's safe return.
Means intended to use Whitaker, who posed as a gangster, as the bagman to pick up her ransom money, but both were arrested and eventually convicted.
During his life, he served time at several prisons, including Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, where he befriended the notorious Al Capone.
His advanced education, high intelligence, command of foreign languages, expensive wardrobe, plentiful ready cash, skill at chess, and confident personal manner all aided in fooling many unsuspecting victims.
[28] During his life, Whitaker was convicted of several additional serious offenses, including sending morphine through the mail, and sexual molestation of a minor (1950).
Games databases which compile competitive events indicate a 16-year gap for Whitaker from 1931 to 1947; he played the 1947 U.S. Open, at Corpus Christi, Texas in his return.
After more than ten years of campaigning, Whitaker was finally awarded the International Master title by FIDE in 1965, based on his several strong tournament results from decades earlier.
The last years of his life were spent driving around the country in his Volkswagen Beetle, playing in weaker-field chess tournaments in the Southern United States that he could potentially win.
[4] In 1961, he was involved in a serious automobile accident in Arkansas in which his friend and co-author Glenn Hartleb was killed, but Whitaker still continued to compete actively in chess until shortly before his death in 1975 at the age of 85, in Phenix City, Alabama.
[34] Whitaker essayed a classical style, with a strong preference for symmetrical defenses with the Black pieces; he never seriously adopted the hypermodern style, developed from 1920 by leading players from his generation such as Aron Nimzowitsch, Alexander Alekhine, Richard Reti, Ernst Grunfeld, Savielly Tartakower, and Efim Bogolyubov.
